Military Review English Edition March-April 2016 - Page 80

GSMA explains, “Mobile devices are often one of
the first things people reach for when disaster strikes;
for example, one of the first requests by those displaced
on Sinjar Mountain in Iraq was a means to charge
their mobile phones so that they could obtain information, to locate loved ones, and to become involved
in response efforts.”19 Those examples illustrate that, by
2015, mobile networks had truly become an essential
component of crisis management.
Beyond straightforward communications, mobile phones have also enabled mobile banking. As of
January 2015, 38 percent of the world’s population
lived without access to a bank account; mobile banking
promises the primary pathway for such communities.20
For example, Pakistan’s largest financial institution is a
Norwegian mobile phone operator.21 In another example, Kenya boasts one of the most popular and successful mobile phone payment systems in the world.22
However, in a 2011 report, the Department of
Homeland Security’s (DHS) Computer Emergency
Readiness Team warned “mobile phones are becoming more and more valuable as targets for attack.”23
Cybersecurity professionals consider mobile devices their networks’ greatest vulnerability.24 Between
August 2013 and March 2014, attacks per month
against mobile devices increased over 800 percent.25 In
one instance, Chinese cybercriminals used fake mobile
banking apps to trick users to enter credentials, which
enabled hackers to steal millions of dollars.26 Since
communities in future conflicts will be dependent on
mobile banking, cyberthreats to mobile banking will
influence Army stability operations.
Protecting and Restoring Essential
Services Reliant on Cyberspace
The international community plays a critical role in
helping stakeholders restore telecommunications as an
essential service. The International Telecommunication
Union (ITU) has a United Nations mandate to oversee information and communications technologies
(ICTs). ITU members include 173 governments and
hundreds of nongovernmental institutions and private
companies.27 In the first quarter of 2015, ITU personnel
deployed to help restore telecommunications for relief
efforts in Malawi, Mozambique, Micronesia, Nepal, and
Vanuatu.28 Efforts in telecommunications represent a
broader imperative for ICT growth for stability.
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The Cyberspace Paradox and
Examples of Emerging Threats
Protecting and restoring ICTs are necessary components of prosperity.29 Future economic growth will
depend upon the mobility and flexibility of a country’s
networks.30 In 2007, ITU emphasized, “Organizations
and countries need to focus on innovation capacities
and rapid adaptability, backed up by a powerful and
secure information system, if they wish to survive
and assert themselves as long-term players in the new
competitive environment.”31 Increased access to the
Internet, mobile services, and broadband boosts economic growth.32 Moreover, the World Bank identifies
ICTs as key factors in social development.33 As developing countries continued to deepen their ICT penetration, their long-run infrastructure costs decrease,
thus creating a virtuous cycle.34 Those falling costs spur
even more broadband penetration.35 In short, ICTs unleash latent economic forces in developing economies.36
In a 2014 report, Microsoft researchers described a
“cybersecurity paradox” facing developing countries with
low ICT penetration.37 Those countries suffer the highest malware infection rates. Moreover, as those countries
develop ICT infrastructure, their infection rates accelerate.38 Thus, the poorest countries with the lowest ICT
levels can be most vulnerable to cybersecurity threats.
Since conflict zones already suffer elevated levels of
human trafficking, child exploitation, illicit drug trade,
and organized crime, vulnerable cyberspace makes them
ripe for exploitation.39 Consequently, cybercrime has
become an unavoidable evolution for nefarious actors in
such circumstances. For example, after the 2010 Haiti
earthquake, cybercriminals immediately published web
portals for fake charities to bilk donors.40
Elsewhere, cyberattacks have become a component
in political conflict. For example, when Russia seized
the Crimea in 2014, mobile phone operators in Ukraine
suffered significant service disruption.41 And, during
Ukraine’s May 2014 presidential election, pro-Russian
hackers penetrated the electronic voting system and
installed malicious code capable of deleting swaths of
votes.42
In response, in February 2015, Kiev publish YH